MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump may bring different expectations to the table if they meet face to face, as expected, this week at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Vietnam. Their last meeting took place in July at the Group of 20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, and produced the announcement of a de-escalation zone in Syria at the border with Israel.

Until recently, the Kremlin and the White House have been reluctant to comment with certainty on whether the two presidents will make a thorough review of some of the issues equally challenging to Russia and the United States, but the latest messages from Moscow suggest this is what the Russians are looking for. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Nov. 4 that the men are considering a discussion of the Syrian settlement. Peskov also dropped an important clue on Moscow’s thinking behind elaborating on an agenda for the Putin-Trump talks, saying it is “in the common interest [that] both presidents could find opportunities for a rather long communication."

Earlier, speaking at the Conference of the Russian-American Science Association in Chicago, Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov said the agenda for the meeting between the presidents is likely to focus on three major topics: the "war on international terrorism, prospects for the peace settlement in Syria and the North Korea nuclear problem.”

Indeed, Moscow is signaling it would still like to emphasize the issues it has long been promoting with the United States. The terror attack in New York last week by Uzbek national Sayfullo Saipov was seen in Moscow as yet another sign for Russia and the United States to start cooperating on the terrorism threat. Saipov’s radicalization seems to have occurred in the United States rather than in his native Uzbekistan; thus, Trump’s immediate response on tightening the immigration screws isn’t necessarily going to help shield America from this peril.